


Up All Night Long

by plinys



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-28
Updated: 2014-12-28
Packaged: 2018-03-03 23:27:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2892023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’s pretty sure in some part of the city people are crowded around their televisions watching prerecorded versions of New York City’s ball drop, wearing fancy dresses, spraying confetti in the air, and turning around to find somebody to kiss.</p><p>But she's not one of those people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Up All Night Long

**Author's Note:**

  * For [agentrromanoff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentrromanoff/gifts).



It’s New Year’s.

She’s pretty sure in some part of the city people are crowded around their televisions watching prerecorded versions of New York City’s ball drop, wearing fancy dresses, spraying confetti in the air, and turning around to find somebody to kiss.

But she's not one of those people.

Instead she's standing in gym shorts and an old tank top, with a bottle of wine in her hands, while the fire alarm blared through her apartment complex.

Hiding away on New Year’s was fine and all when there had been nobody there to see it, but now there’s that whole party from upstairs out on the lawn (probably the ones who set off the alarm) and everybody surely must now be aware of just how lonely her holiday season had been turning out to be.

At least she wasn’t only one looking like a weirdo.

The person that takes the cake for that one is definitely the guy that lives across the hall from her, who is currently bouncing up and down on his toes as if that will somehow make the cold evening weather a bit more bearable in his state.

He catches her looking at him and shoots a wink in her direction, before gesturing to himself (while still bouncing) and asking, “like what you see?”

She doesn’t answer his question, though she does sweep an appraising gaze of him, before pointing her wine bottle and him and asking a question of her own, “Aren’t you that weird cat dude?”

“I’m a professional cat photographer, that’s not weird,” he objects, before grinning at her and saying, “but yes that’s me, in case it wasn’t obvious.”

Seeing as she only has one exceptional hot but also kind of weird across the hall neighbor it was pretty obvious.

Though the fact he’s wearing boxers with little cat faces on them would have been a dead giveaway had she foolishly thought for a second that he was one of their more normal neighbors.

“You buy those in the kid’s section?”

“Nope,” he replies with a smirk, “adult section, had to have them specially ordered online, because I’m packing.”

Skye laughs at that, and if he eyes flicker downwards then well – he was totally asking for it.

“Doesn’t look like it.”

“That’s because it’s freezing out here,” he objects, looking mildly offended, “I’d be a bit less freezing if somebody shared their wine.”

Skye clutches the bottle to her chest a bit possessively, “no thanks weird cat neighbor.”

“You sure I can’t convince you to change your mind?”

“The only way you could convince me is if you could get these alarms to stop blaring so I can go back to my apartment.”

He pulls a face at that before saying, “I’m wish,” and crossing the distance so that he’s standing closer to her.

Skye arches an eyebrow at him, the silent question on the edge of her lips, but he answers before she has to ask.

“If I stand next to you, it looks like we’re together instead of two losers who were trying to sleep through New Year’s.”

“I was watching Netflix,” Skye finds herself admitting, even though she was certain a second before that she had been planning to object to his statements.

He laughs at that, a wonderful charming laugh and says, “of course, that’s what the wine was for.”

Skye’s going to completely blame it on his laugh, but she ends up passing the bottle to him, from which her neighbor takes a greedy drink before returning it, their fingers briefly touching as he does so.

“Thanks, love.”

“I’m not your _love_ ,” she quickly corrects.

“You’ve already seen me naked, I figured we could skip a few steps?”

“That so?”

“Most certainly.”

They both start laughing, and at once it feels better than all of the Netflix and wine in the world, maybe she should have listened to her coworkers and gone out with them for the holiday, because apparently human interaction wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

Then again, had she done that, she wouldn’t have ended up here, finally talking to her hot and still sort of weird neighbor, as the party upstairs begins a countdown to midnight that isn’t entirely in sync or in tune.

 _“Fifty-four, fifty-three,”_ the crowd chants.

“Is it that time already?”

“Must be.”

_“Forty-eight, forty-seven.”_

“I wish I had one of those kazoos.”

“I wouldn’t have shared my wine with you if you did.”

“That’s pretty rude, love.”

_“Thirty-two, thirty-one.”_

“I have a name.”

“I know-“

“You do?”

“It’s Skye, says so on your mailbox.”

“ _Twenty-six, twenty-five.”_

“That’s cheating.”

“Actually, it’s being resourceful. Which, to be clear, is a very desirable skill-“

“In a cat photographer?”

“In a person in general.”

“ _Thirteen, Twelve.”_

“I feel like I should be mildly offended by you bashing on my career.”

“Probably more than mildly.”

“ _Seven, Six, Five.”_

“Well, here goes nothing?”

“Wait, what?”

“ _Three, two.”_

She’s not entirely surprised that when the crowd finally gets to _one_ , there are lips on hers, and while it takes her a second before responding in turn, soon enough the mostly empty wine bottle falling from her fingers as she reaches up to bring her arms around his neck and pull him closer her to deepen the kiss.

It feels like an eternity, or the best start to the New Year, when they finally break apart for air.

“Happy New Year’s _,_ love.”

She smiles back at him, before pausing as a realization of what happened kind of sinks in, “hey, sorry for being the rudest neighbor in the world, but what’s your name?”

It’s worth asking when he laughs again, “you make a habit of kissing guy’s whose name’s you don’t know?”

“Maybe I just decided my New Year’s Resolution was to get to know yours.”

“Then consider your resolution accomplished – It’s Lance.”

“And what if my resolution was to kiss you again?”

“I can do that too,” before making her second kiss of the New Year, just as wonderful as the first.  


End file.
